1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device having a voice and/or manual user interface and to a process for aiding with learning the voice instructions of such a device. It relates in particular to the field of devices designed to be controlled using a remote control that can be operated by voice or alternatively using buttons.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, the various functions of a device are accessed through a hierarchy of menus through which the user navigates using buttons on his or her remote control, using voice instructions or optionally buttons fitted to the device itself.
One problem which arises for the users is to know the voice instructions, that is to say the keywords which need to be spoken in order to use them. This is because, even if these keywords are chosen so as to be memorized with ease, if the user does not use them often, he runs the risk of forgetting them and therefore not using the voice instructions.
One first way of aiding users to know the voice instructions consists in implementing the principle of xe2x80x9cWYSIWYCSxe2x80x9d, standing for xe2x80x9cWhat You See Is What You Can Sayxe2x80x9d. That is to say, when a menu contains headings (a heading being a submenu or a function) is displayed on the screen, the user can reach or activate one of the headings by saying the keyword displayed on the screen which corresponds to this heading.
However, the main benefit of voice instruction of the devices over manual instruction involves the use of short-cuts for:
either directly accessing certain menus or certain functions of the devices by saying a keyword corresponding to the said menu or the said function, without having to perform multiple operations of navigating through the menu, in which case the term navigation voice short-cuts is used;
or directly activating certain functions, also by saying a keyword corresponding to the said function, without having to enter into any menu, in which case the term activation voice short-cuts is used;
it being possible for these two possibilities to be combined with voice short-cuts which make it possible both to access a function and activate it.
In this case, the xe2x80x9cWYSIWYCSxe2x80x9d approach cannot be applied since the user will not necessarily see on screen the keywords which he can say to reach a menu or activate a given function.
One object of the invention is to solve the problem explained above by making it easier for users to learn and know the voice instructions.
For this purpose, the invention provides a device having a voice and/or manual user interface for accessing its functions, the functions being accessible through a hierarchy of menus in which the branches can be short-circuited by certain voice instructions referred to as voice short-cuts. According to the invention, the device has:
means for storing a sequence of interactions by the user;
means for detecting the existence of a voice short-cut corresponding to the stored sequence of interactions; and
means for delivering, in the event that the existence of a voice short-cut is detected, a message to the user in order to inform him or her of the existence of the voice short-cut.
The invention also relates to a process for aiding the learning of voice instructions of a device as mentioned above. This process comprises the steps consisting in:
a) storing a sequence of interactions by the user;
b) testing whether a voice short-cut corresponding to said sequence of interactions exists; and
c) in the event that the existence of a voice short-cut is detected, providing means for informing the user of the existence of the voice short-cut.
Thus, as soon as the user uses a complex sequence of interactions to reach a menu or a function of the device even though he could have reached this menu or this function using a voice short-cut, he will be reminded of the use of this voice short-cut. By virtue of the invention, the user will find it very easy to remember the voice short-cuts corresponding to the menus or functions which he accesses most often.
According to a particular embodiment of the invention, step a) comprises:
i) storage of the initial state of the user interface;
ii) detection of an action performed by the user;
iii) storage of the current state of the user interface following this action;
steps ii) and iii) being repeated until one of the following conditions for the end of a sequence of interactions is fulfilled:
the action detected corresponds to the activation of a function; or
no action is detected for a period longer than a predetermined limit duration.
It is thus possible to detect both sequences of interactions leading to the activation of a function and those consisting in accessing a menu or a particular function without activating it.
According to a particular embodiment, the user interface has a remote control equipped with buttons and a microphone, and the action detected in step ii) belongs to the set consisting of:
a button on the remote control being pressed; and
the microphone picking up a keyword corresponding to a voice instruction.
Advantageously, the process of the invention furthermore comprises the steps consisting in:
iv) providing a use counter associated with each voice instruction of the device;
v) testing whether the action detected in step ii) is a voice instruction which corresponds to a voice short-cut; and
vi) incrementing the use counter associated with said voice instruction when the answer to the test above is positive.
According to a preferred aspect of the invention, the storage means of the device include an interaction register comprising:
an xe2x80x9cinitial statexe2x80x9d field in which the initial state of the user interface is stored during step i);
a xe2x80x9ccurrent statexe2x80x9d field in which the current state of the user interface is stored during step iii).
According to a particular embodiment, step a) furthermore includes:
vii) storage of the use of each voice short-cut detected in step v); and step c) furthermore includes
viii) checking that the voice short-cut corresponding to the stored sequence of interactions has not already been used during said sequence of interactions.
According to a preferred aspect of the invention, if in step viii) it is detected that the voice short-cut corresponding to the stored sequence of interactions has not yet been used during said sequence of interactions, then the steps consisting in:
ix) comprise the use counter of the voice instruction corresponding to said voice short-cut with a predetermined threshold, and
if the use counter is greater than or equal to the threshold, then
x) decrementing the use counter;
else,
xi) sending a message to the user informing him or her of the existence of the voice short-cut detected in step b)
are carried out.
Thus, if the user is in the habit of using a voice short-cut but sometimes forgets to employ it, the system reacts xe2x80x9cintelligentlyxe2x80x9d by not reminding him or her of the existence of the voice short-cut.
According to another aspect of the invention, means are provided for disabling the process described above for the case when the user does not in general wish to be disturbed by the messages reminding him or her of the voice instructions.